


Please Help

by SEpupppupp (ForNought)



Series: Please Look Here [2]
Category: Produce 101 (TV)
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Confessions, Crushes, Intervention, M/M, Making Up, Sulking, another day out, empty threats, eungi with a 'g', hwanwoong is an agony aunt, i keep trying to include too many kids, secret dates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-11-05 16:06:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11016834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForNought/pseuds/SEpupppupp
Summary: Yeo Hwanwoong seems to fancy himself as the person to solve all of his friends' problems by pointing them out to everybody and making snide remarks.While Hwanwoong is busy helping Insoo make up with Sangbin after their mysterious falling out, Eungi's crisis over Jungjung seems to be coming to a head.





	Please Help

**Author's Note:**

> a sort of sequel to tumble??? it totally is.

“Today, I am going to read out some of the concerns that have been sent anonymously to me by my friends,” Hwanwoong said softly as he produced a folded sheet of lined paper from his pocket. He serenely looked around at the people gathered around the table – the poor innocent people who were trying to eat their ice cream in peace – before clearing his throat. “Our first concern reads, ‘Hyung, I am very stupid. Please help.’ Hyunmin, Jaechan, you can deicide for yourselves who sent me this concern, but let me provide a message of comfort. Fighting!”

Eungi tried really hard to contain his smile as Hyunmin and Jaechan loudly protested, each making claims that they aren’t stupid and they had never confessed such a thing and that they didn’t even consider Hwanwoong to be a hyung anyway. He would like to have laughed as freely as Insoo felt the need to but he had to exercise some caution. As much as Eungi loved Hwanwoong, he knew that Hwanwoong could just have easily have written one of these fake concerns about him.

“Ah this one is an interesting one,” Hwanwoong nodded sagely as he flapped his paper around as though he was a news reader. “’I don’t understand Korean,’ my concerned friend writes. ‘Please help’. Does anybody think they can help poor Jungjung-hyung or Kenta-hyung?”

Jungjung looked genuinely upset when he turned to Eungi and tugged at his arm. “I really, really didn’t write that concern, Eungi! I can understand Korean. I am working hard.”

“I know, Hyung,” Eungi said placatingly. He patted Jungjung’s hand and said, “It is just a game.

The words made Jungjung happy but earned Eungi a thump on the arm from Hwanwoong. “This is very serious. It is not a game. If it wasn’t from Jungjung-hyung, that only leaves our Kitsune-hyung, unless one of our idiot maknaes wants to cop to sending this one in?”

Kenta rolled his eyes, clearly not the true author of the concern, but he didn’t possess the will to contest it. Kenta was an admirable person while he endeavoured to eat his ice cream despite Insoo shaking his arm and cackling about ‘Kitsune-hyung’. Kenta was very admirable right up until he snatched Insoo’s untouched ice cream and devoured it in one bite.

“Kitsu- ah, I mean, Kenta-hyung, that was really cool,” Hyunmin said earnestly.

“If nobody wants to help Kistune-hyung I will skip ahead to the next one. ‘How do I turn waacking into an everyday activity so that people will compliment me all the time?’” Hwanwoong read. Eungi had been right to be suspicious.  

“Yah, Yeo Hwanwoong!”

“I thought it was just a game, Hyung,” Hwanwoong said innocently.

“You don’t need to do waacking all the time,” Hyunmin said, equally as innocently. “You do everything prettily.”

It was a nice thing to hear – of course Eungi loved people saying nice things about him as often as possible – but it seemed very insincere right at that moment. Hyunmin was usually kind but maybe he had been spending too much time with certain people. Eungi narrowed his eyes at Kenta and Insoo who enjoyed being sycophantic the most.

“Eungi-hyung, I suppose you will just have to accept that everything you do is pretty. Not everything in life is about waacking,” Hwanwoong said decisively. He pretended to scrutinise his sheet of paper for a few moments before looking around the table and nodding at his so-called friends. “This next concern has a name attached. I believe it was sent to me by a young lady called In Sooyi.”

“That is the worst fake name I have ever heard,” Kenta said.

“She sounds ugly,” Jaechan grinned.

“Yeo Hwanwoong, this isn’t funny!” Insoo grumbled. Hwanwoong protested considering he wasn’t even the person who had levied the insult against Insoo, but the words fell on deaf ears.

“What about this one,” Insoo said as he mimed holding a sheet of paper. “I’m the same height sitting as I am standing, please help.”  

“Eungi-hyung, people are ignoring poor In Sooyi’s plight in favour of bullying me,” Hwanwoong whined pitifully as he tipped his head onto Eungi’s shoulder. Eungi hugged Hwanwoong a bit closer while calling him a baby.

“Hyung, why don’t you listen to what our little Hwanwoong has to say about In Sooyi’s concern,” Eungi appealed. 

“I don’t appreciate the ‘little’ comment,” Hwanwoong said, business-like once more. “So our In Sooyi sent in a concern. She says, ‘I had a falling out with my good friend Sangkong–“

Hyunmin snorted ice cream all over Jaechan’s hand.

“– Since we fell out I have been inconveniencing my other friends by making a nuisance of myself. I keep insisting we hang out together even when my friends are busy and I also keep getting drunk and making my friends drive me around and buy me things. I also keep calling my friends mean names that they certainly don’t appreciate. Was I this much of an evil monster before I fell out with Sangkong? I don’t know anymore. I really need some help!’”

“I’m not stupid,” Insoo grumbled. “Why are you making such a big deal out of nothing. I’ve just now decided I’m not Kenta’s friend for that stupid trick he pulled with my ice cream. Has In Sooyi written a concern about that one too?”

Eungi was taken aback. He had expected Insoo to laugh off the concern. He was being quite standoffish about the whole thing.

Eungi hadn’t thought it was so much of a big deal – but Insoo hadn’t even mentioned Sangbin for a while. It sounded a bit extreme for something like going out with a different friend. But it could just have been that Insoo was even more petty than they had all believed.

 

Insoo was definitely a lot pettier than first thought – and not in the cute way like Hwanwoong who would make faces at people when he hugged Eungi, and not in the taciturnly disapproving way that Kenta was – but this was the first time it had come to light.

“Okay, Yeo Hwanwoong, that thing with the paper was cute for about five minutes but we have moved on from that,” Insoo said with his arms folded across his chest. He had initially been receptive to the suggestion that they all go for a walk in the park. Suddenly he had spotted the small group sitting around a picnic bench with cups of bubble tea.

“Everything I do is cute,” Hwanwoong said confidently, “How could we ever move on from that?”

“He’s right,” Eungi said to Insoo, “Everything Hwanwoong does is adorable.”

“This is not adorable,” Insoo said stalwartly.

Eungi would be tempted to agree. It was quite an underhanded tactic, forcing an issue such as this, but Eungi was too curious to take Insoo’s side. Kenta seemed to agree.

“Park Woodam!” Kenta yelled as he waved over at the table. Woodam stood up quickly and enthusiastically waved back. As did Lee Kiwon and Kim Namhyung who were definitely enjoying their bubble tea. Kim Sangbin was choking.

Jaechan was the first one over to thump Sangbin on the back. Nobody else seemed to be particularly concerned. He probably wasn’t dying anyway, Eungi reasoned as he stood behind Namhyung and wrapped his arms around his shoulders.

“Hyung, what a surprise to see you here,” Eungi said, tipping himself forward. Namhyung tipped his head backwards to look up at Eungi, his lopsided smile just as pleasant as when it was viewed the right-way up.

“I knew to expect you, Eungi,” he grinned up. “What sort of things have you been scheming about today?”

“Eh? This is nothing to do with me.”

Namhyung raised his eyebrows as he pulled away to look at Eungi properly. “I don’t believe you.”

“I don’t believe you either,” Insoo said in a low voice as he tugged at the back of Eungi’s T-shirt. There wasn’t anything Eungi could do about that. People could either believe him or not believe him. There wasn’t anything he could do about the fact that even Kim Sangbin, who had finally recovered from choking, was looking up at him suspiciously. 

“What does everybody think of me to be saying things like this?” Eungi asked. Kiwon widened his eyes and looked away. Even Woodam pretended not to hear.

“You’re very pretty when you’re waacking,” Hyunmin said brightly.

“I thought we had established that not everything in life is about waacking,” Kenta said as he leaned forward to rest his chin on Kiwon’s head.

“I feel like I have missed a lot,” Kiwon said, twisting around to see what everybody else made of what was being said.

“Me too,” Sangbin muttered.

“We heard the concerns of some friends,” Hwanwoong said as he squished onto the bench next to Namhyung.

“There was an ugly girl called In Sooyi,” Jaechan added as he planted himself half in Hwanwoong’s lap.

“In Sooyi?” Sangbin repeated. He raised his eyebrows and sent a significant glance Insoo’s way. “Do you know her, Insoo?”

“Who knows,” Insoo responded cagily. He clearly wanted to be anywhere other than here. This was probably a bad idea. As well-meaning as Hwanwoong was it didn’t mean anything positive would come of the meeting.

Eungi was considering making up an excuse for Insoo to leave but he was a bit too slow.

“Insoo, you’ve been ignoring me for weeks.” Insoo shrugged at Sangbin’s observation. “This really isn’t right. Lee Insoo, sit down and talk for a while.”

“I don’t think there’s any need for that.”

“Sit down,” Sangbin said. He seemed to be quite collected for someone who was choking just moments ago. Hyunmin, who had graciously plonked himself beside Sangbin already seemed attached.

“Sit down! Sit down! Sit down!” Hyunmin started chanting. Hwanwoong joined in within a beat and Jaechan rounded out the cheer squad.

“Where?” Insoo asked sullenly. Sangbin pointed to the empty space opposite Hyunmin. “Isn’t Jungjung going to sit there?”

“Ah, no,” Jungjung said quickly. “You can sit here, Insoo.”

Insoo bared his teeth in response. “That is so generous. Kenta-hyung, come here.”

“What?”

Insoo jerked his head and Kenta rolled his eyes. He patted Kiwon on the shoulder and walked over to Insoo who pushed him down onto the picnic bench before sitting on the remaining three centimetres of space and facing away from the group.

Sangbin raised his eyebrows at Kenta who only shrugged in response.

“Is that comfortable?”

“Yeah.”

Insoo shifted, clearly uncomfortable, and pushed Kenta further into Woodam’s side.

“Are you thirsty?” Woodam asked cheerily. He nudged his bubble tea towards Kenta who gratefully accepted. Insoo cast a glance at that but didn’t say anything. Kenta took a long draught of the drink and then licked his lips before thanking Woodam who briefly hugged Kenta.

Sangbin didn’t seem to miss that and his smile turned impish.

“Insoo, are you thirsty too? Do you want a drink?”

“No.”

“Go ahead and have a drink, Insoo. Woodam, let insoo have some of your drink,” Sangbin said.

“I really am going to leave in a moment,” Insoo grumbled.

“Hyung, why are you offering somebody else’s drink?” Kiwon asked, clearly clueless. “Woodam-hyung is already sharing his drink. Insoo can have some of mine if he likes.”

“No, no, no,” Sangbin said with a wag of his finger. “Woodam’s drink in the flavour that Insoo likes best.”

“But our drinks are all the same flavour,” Kiwon said as he looked around the table for confirmation. Eungi felt sorry for how ill-informed he was but this wasn’t the time to explain this. Namhyung squeezed at Eungi’s hand, a silent request to be let in on the joke at a later time, and Eungi squeezed back with certainty.

“Have I missed something?” Kiwon asked.

“I don’t know,” Insoo grumbled. “Sangbin, is this another secret that you want to keep?”

“Hyung, what is this about secrets?” Hyunmin asked. He blinked around the table just as cluelessly as Kiwon had and almost missed Hwanwoong’s rather large signals to shut up that were obscured by Jaechan’s head.

“No, no, it’s fine, I love it when there are loads of secrets being kept from me,” Insoo said with such wild gesticulations that he almost tipped off the edge off the picnic table.

“Don’t you have more secrets than me though?” Sangbin asked with a smirk.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Insoo said loudly. He leapt up and pointed at Sangbin. “If you’re not going to apologise then I won’t make up with you again, not even if Yeo Hwanwoong ties me up and holds a knife to my throat.”

“Hyung, why would I do any of that?”

“Shut up!” Insoo shouted. He took a few steps before looking back at the table. “Am I going alone? Eungi?”

Eungi supposed he didn’t mind being summoned too much as he wasn’t sitting down anyway. He followed as Insoo stormed off and within a couple of steps Jungjung was keeping pace with him. They didn’t get too far because Insoo suddenly stopped and sat cross-legged on the grass a few metres away from the rest of their friends.

“Let’s take a selfie,” Insoo suggested blithely. He was deciding between the different selfie apps on his phone while gesturing for Eungi and Jungjung to crowd in. He held his phone aloft and began to try out poses. “We can choose filters in a moment. Let’s take some boring ones for now. We are having so much fun. We don’t need any of the rest of them.”

“Are you sure?” Eungi asked through his smile.

“Absolutely,” Insoo said as he snapped a few pictures.

Eungi posed happily, because he wasn’t the type of person to ruin Insoo’s imaginary good time. But Insoo cursed when he looked at the photos he had just taken.

“What’s wrong, Insoo?” Jungjung asked.

“Keep looking forward. Just ignore–”

“Ah, Lee Insoo! I thought you were leaving!” Sangbin said jocularly as he sat cross-legged right in front of Insoo. Kenta sat beside him unapologetically.

“What is this?”

“You’re here to be friends with me again,” Sangbin said. “Shouldn’t you at least do it properly?”

“And you?” He asked Kenta rudely.

“I was just here for support. I can leave it you want.”

“Stay,” Insoo muttered. Kenta didn’t budge and Insoo looked mildly pleased with that. He turned his gaze to Sangbin once more. “Do you have anything to say to me? Are you at least going to describe it?”

“No.”

“Then I’m not interested in being friends,” Insoo said sounding chic for once instead of petulant.

Sangbin bit his lip against a smile. “Do you see this kid? He is driving me crazy.”

Insoo started muttering things about just how crazy Sangbin was. At this Sangbin shuffled closer on his knees and sat right in front of Insoo. He gently placed his hand on Insoo’s shoulder and moved his thumb from the hollow of Insoo’s throat and along his collarbone and stopped the motion at Insoo’s shoulder.

“Here,” He said.

“Here?” Insoo asked.

“That’s right,” Sangbin nodded. It took a few moments but Insoo allowed a small smile to creep onto his face. Sangbin grinned back.

“I suppose that’s a good enough start. You had better tell me the rest soon.”

“Eungi, do you know what is happening?” Jungjung asked in a low voice. Eungi didn’t have a clue and it seemed Kenta didn’t either from the way he was staring at his hands. “Kenta, do you know?”

“We can’t know everything,” Kenta smiled

“Ah, sorry! I don’t mean to pry!” Jungjung said. Insoo waved his hand in the air.

“It doesn’t matter. Fine, we can sort of be friends again,” Insoo said. He stood up and stretched. “Let’s return to our friends.”

Sangbin poked Insoo in the ribs once he was standing and threw his arm over Insoo’s shoulders. They started to walk back to the table. Jungjung looked between Eungi and Kenta.

“Are we not going back too?”

“In a moment,” Eungi said. He patted Kenta’s knee. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?”

There was a long moment between the question and Kenta shrugging. Jungjung looked confused. Eungi waited.

“Ah,” Kenta groaned minutely and dropped his head into his hands. He smiled feebly when he looked back up at Eungi and Jungjung. “It is stupid to feel jealous, right? Everyone is making a fuss about getting Insoo to make up with Sangbin and it feels like now that they are talking again there will be less time for me.”

Kenta was well-liked by everybody. He had friends everywhere and he was reasonably amicable at all times. Sure, he had been with Insoo more often just so that twice as many people were imposing on hospitality that Eungi wasn’t providing, but it had just seemed as though he was killing time. He looked like he really wasn’t happy about it.

Eungi exchanged a glance with Jungjung who looked very reassuring – the expression was good enough that Eungi almost believed it for a moment.

“I completely understand what you mean, Kenta-hyung,” Jungjung said with a bright smile. “I feel so jealous whenever anybody else touches Eungi. Even if it is just a hand on his shoulder, I really start to dislike that person! And even something like talking makes me wish he would only ever look at me. It is hard, Kenta-hyung.”

Eungi was shocked. That was probably the least helpful thing he had ever heard anybody say. Combine that with the fact that it was plain embarrassing – the timing of Hwanwoong, Jaechan and Hyunmin’s laughter from a few metres away was too much of a coincidence – Eungi was very quickly losing faith in everybody around him.

“That doesn’t really make me feel better, Jungjung,” Kenta said sadly. “It isn’t quite the same for me. I’m not in love with Insoo. But thanks for sharing.”

“Ah, Eungi,” Jungjung said cautiously.

“Yes, Hyung?”

Jungjung kept opening and closing his mouth. The hesitation wasn’t the most settling thing in the world, but if Kenta had so easily said something like that about him he would probably have cried on the spot. In fact, Eungi thought he might cry right now anyway.

“It is just that… Eungi-ssi,” Jungjung tried awkwardly. Kenta sidled away whilst muttering something about Jaechan. Eungi wasn’t sure whether Kenta walking away made this any better or worse.

“Hyung, I know,” Eungi said with a surprisingly stable voice. He couldn’t quite look up at Jungjung’s face but the fact that he could talk at all was good enough. “It’s fine.”

“It’s fine?”

It wasn’t fine at all but Eungi supposed there was an upside. He could have ruined his entire life by doing something stupid like confessing to Jungjung while swept up on the adrenaline of a good mood. Not that Eungi was brave enough for that sort of thing anyway, but it was still a possibility.

“Yeah, it’s absolutely fine. Oh, is that my phone? Hold on a second, Hyung,” Eungi said. He knew his acting was off as he pulled his phone from his pocket and turned slightly away as he held it up to his face. “Ah, Mum, how are you? I’m fine. I’m just out with some friends.”

Jungjung only looked more confused and Eungi was certain this was one of the worst situations in his life.

“What? You want me to come home already? But I’m having so much fun!” Eungi lied to his imaginary mother. He paused again, no idea where he was going with this. “Fine, I will bring you home some… Chinese cabbage.”

Eungi faked hanging up and hoped that Jungjung missed the fact that the phone screen didn’t light up when he moved it away from his face. He put his phone in his pocket and smiled in a way that might not have been a smile.

“Sorry, Hyung. I have to go home.”

Jungjung’s face twisted awkwardly and Eungi wasn’t quite sure what the worst part of this was. Eungi wasn’t out to make Jungjung feel bad for no reason. But he was feeling quite bad himself. Jungjung feeling bad for whatever was only secondary to himself feeling bad for not being liked in quite the right way.

“Do you want me to come with you?” Jungjung asked.

“No thank you,” Eungi said. He was very polite like that. “I just need to say goodbye to everybody else.”

Jungjung followed Eungi over to the majority of the group. Kenta stopped talking to look up at them and at least had the decency to look apologetic when Eungi shook his head. Because everyone was nice, they all looked sad to hear that he was leaving first and when Woodam, Insoo and Sangbin hugged him and Namhyung and Kiwon patted him on the back he wished his friends were much less nice. He felt like an idiot when Jaechan asked him if he was alright and his throat was too tight for him to give a proper reply.  

“Why are you following me?” Eungi said when he was out of sight of the group. He turned to see Hwanwoong and Hyunmin both looking very worried.

“Another friend sent me a concern,” Hwanwoong said. “It didn’t come with a name but it said, ‘I am upset and I need a hug. Please help’.”

“Yeo Hwanwoong,” Eungi muttered, “Why are you like this?”

“You’ve known me for years, Hyung, you already know I’m like this,” Hwanwoong smiled as he closed his arms around Eungi. Hyunmin saw fit to hug Eungi from the other side as though this was not the right way to go about making Eungi cry.

“What’s your excuse then, Byun Hyunmin?”

Hyunmin stood on his tiptoes to rest his chin on Eungi’s shoulder. “I just love you, Hyung.”

That was good enough, Eungi supposed as he rolled his eyes up and tried to get his eyes to dry. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Hwanwoong asked gently, squeezing even tighter.

No. Except he did. He wanted someone to understand and tell him things that were better to hear than the reality. He shrugged. Could he be surprised that he had reached the point in life where he was crying in a park while two of his friends hugged him without expectation?

“I don’t know. He is just so unfair.” Eungi sniffed up the end of his pathetic laugh and it was so much worse when Hwanwoong held Eungi’s face between his hands and looked his straight in the eye.

“What did he say to you, Hyung?”

“Nothing. I’m stupid.”

“You’re wrong. You’re not. Nothing you say is stupid,” Hyunmin said with enough sincerity for everything to almost be fine. Eungi was stupid though, no matter what the kids said. He dabbed at his face with the heel of his hand and Hyunmin even caught the tears from Eungi’s other eye with his sleeve.

“Maybe I’m misunderstanding,” Eungi said less eloquently than he would have liked. “He says things but maybe he doesn’t mean them how I hear them. Like, uh, he’s said things about liking me and being jealous of other people, but… I want to apologise to him for thinking things and feeling things, but to do that I would have to tell him in the first place.”

“There is nothing that you need to apologise for.”

Hwanwoong sounded so certain. Eungi was sure that at some point he used to be the reliable type but when he was weak, Hwanwoong was solid confidence.

“Good, I would like to remain a coward for a bit longer.”

“He doesn’t need to know if you don’t want to tell him,” Hyunmin said earnestly.

“If you don’t think he would react well, or he would want to hear it, that isn’t being a coward,” Hwanwoong said in the same voice he had used to read out the fake concerns earlier.

“But I think he would want to hear it,” Hyunmin said quickly.   

It was nice of Hyunmin to say, but Eungi wholeheartedly disagreed. Jungjung was so quick to try to explain himself when things were too close to getting Eungi’s hopes up. If Jungjung didn’t want to be mistaken for saying those sorts of things there was no way he wanted to hear them from Eungi. But he supposed that his heart hurt and if he saw Hyunmin in that state he would be saying the sort of things that came too close to wishful thinking.

 

 

“Is that Kim Donghan?” Hwanwoong asked as they approached the lake in the middle of the park. Near the kiosk to hire paddle boats was someone who definitely bore some resemblance to Donghan sitting on one of the benches. Hwanwoong decided to confirm his identity by lifting his head from Eungi’s shoulder and bellowing, “Kim Donghan!”

Donghan flinched terrifically, fumbling his phone before he noticed the three men approaching him. He didn’t look particularly happy to see them. They stopped right in front of him anyway.

“Hello,” Donghan greeted. He looked at each of them in the face as if waiting for them to leave immediately. Unfortunately, Hwanwoong and Hyunmin were not the people he seemed to think they were – and Eungi was hardly going to leave alone when he was still feeling delicately miserable.

“Donghan-hyung, why don’t you have your hair up? You know, like the style that Representative Boa said that she liked? You have more of a sexy feel that way,” Hyunmin said. He tilted his head on Eungi’s shoulder to look for someone to agree. Eungi did agree, but only privately.

“You too,” Donghan said as he wiped his palms on his thighs and glanced around.

“Waah~! Hyung, Kim Donghan called me sexy,” Hyunmin gasped as he clutched at Eungi’s arm more tightly.

“That is not what I said,” Donghan said absently, still casting his eyes around.

“I heard it. I heard you call Hyunmin sexy too,” Hwanwoong said. “Don’t you think I’m sexy?”

“Nope.”

“Please, I want Kim Donghan to call me sexy,” Hwanwoong whined. He pulled on Eungi’s arm. “Hyung, make him do it. I want to hear something nice too.”

Eungi had no clue why he was being brought into this. There was nothing that he could actually do to make Donghan say anything at all but he knew that Hwanwoong would keep pestering him nonetheless.

“If I say it, will you leave?” Donghan asked before Eungi could pretend he would intervene.

“If you say it I will never leave your side again,” Hwanwoong said sombrely.

That looked like the worst thing that Donghan had ever heard in his life. He looked resigned for a moment before smiling sarcastically at Hwanwoong. “Eungi-hyung, please make them leave. I am begging you.”

“Of course –“ Eungi began right before he heard a voice call out from behind them.

“What is this? Are we having an impromptu gathering? I only have enough drinks for me and Donghan.” It was Kim Taedong who had a strange idea of what the word ‘enough’ meant. He was very conspicuously holding one smoothie with two straws. Eungi noticed it right away and there was no way that Hwanwoong didn’t spot it.

“Wow, Hyung, is this a date?” Hyunmin asked, entirely tactless.

“No, it’s… there’s nothing strange about two friends meeting up,” Donghan said quickly.

Taedong didn’t look too offended with the denial as he sat on the bench beside Donghan and slung his arm across Donghan’s reluctant shoulders. He winked up and Hyunmin and stage whispered, “It’s a date.”

Donghan groaned, defeated, and sullenly sipped at the smoothie.

“I’m sorry that we interrupted,” Eungi said.

Taedong shook his head and smiled up at Eungi while patting the space on the bench beside him. “You look like you need the company.”

That was embarrassing. Eungi dabbed at his eyes even though they felt far too dry now that he had done all of his crying. But clearly the signs were still there in his puffy eyes if even Taedong commented on it. Taedong prompted again so Eungi supposed it would be rude not to sit down. Hwanwoong didn’t seem to care about what counted as being rude and sat on Eungi’s lap before he was even properly seated.

“I guess I’ll sit next to Donghan-hyung then,” Hyunmin said with a coy smile. He tapped his fingertips together and smiled widely as he perched next to Donghan. He pushed his hair up away from his face and leaned into Donghan’s vision. “Is it like this, Hyung? Am I sexy now?”

Donghan shook his head. “No, you’re just our cute kid, Hyunminnie.”

“Yah! Are you trying to make me jealous?” Taedong grumbled. “Do you want to get hit?”

Taedong made a vaguely threatening gesture between Hyunmin and Donghan’s faces and added, “And Kim Donghan, who are you to be calling him a kid? There’s only a year in between you, he’s not that cute.”

“If a year is long enough for him to call me hyung it is also long enough for me to call him a kid,” Donghan reasoned as he chewed on the end of his straw. Taedong leaned in close and closed his lips around the other straw. With the pair of them doing whatever they wanted, Eungi wondered why they hadn’t just allowed – or forced – Eungi and the others to leave.

Taedong pulled away and licked his lips. He smiled sweetly at Eungi. “By the way, I thought you were with Jaechan today.”

“Ah, yeah.”  

“There was a big group of us,” Hwanwoong explained as he twisted around on Eungi’s lap. “It was supposed to be this brilliant plan to get Sangbin-hyung and Insoo-hyung to make up again but the three of us had to leave early.”

“What happened to Sangkong and In Sooyi?” Hyunmin asked helpfully.

“Part of me thinks I am missing something but I am not that desperate to know,” Donghan muttered.

Taedong, on the other hand, seemed to have some grasp of the situation. He said, “You’re trying to get the hyungs talking again? Finally.”

“Do you know why they fell out?” Eungi asked.

“Of course I do,” Taedong said as though it would be ridiculous for him to not know. He nudged at Hwanwoong. “You know too, don’t you? Why didn’t you tell them?”

“Hyung, you really knew?” Hyunmin asked, scandalised. Eungi was shocked too. He assumed Hwanwoong wouldn’t have tried to foster positivity between them if he didn’t know at least part of the reason. But by Taedong’s expression it seemed he knew the whole reason and was withholding information. Hwanwoong shrugged and looked away. And all eyes were on Taedong who seemed more than happy to share.

“It was because Sangbin and some of the others got to see Kim Yongguk’s really embarrassing tattoo,” Taedong grinned. “Apparently it is really bad. Like, unimaginable cringe.”

“Where is it?” Donghan asked suspiciously.

“I don’t know that much. I just know that by the time Insoo turned up with Dongho, or whoever, Yongguk had clammed up. Insoo was feeling really left out.”

Eungi might have been biased but it was still a stupid thing to fall out over. The tattoo must have been really bad for Insoo to make such a big deal about it. Once Kenta and Hoeseung fell out because Hoeseung had insulted his taste in swimwear (and also eyewear, footwear, and accessories, all on separate occasions) but that was the usual sort of stuff. Falling out about not seeing somebody else’s bad tattoo was stupid.

Then again, this was Lee Insoo they were talking about.

“Do you want to see it?” Hwanwoong asked cautiously.

“What do you mean?” Donghan asked with narrowed eyes.

“Gunmin-hyung sent me the picture,” Hwanwoong shrugged. “Apparently those two are good enough friends that Gunmin-hyung has privileges like getting photographic evidence. Ah, but you can’t tell anybody that I have shown you.”

It didn’t take much prompting for Hwanwoong to find the picture and he practically shoved it in their midst. It wasn’t the worst tattoo that Eungi had seen. It wasn’t anywhere too risqué as it was just below Yongguk’s collarbone. It looked like English lettering with poor spacing.

“What does it say?”

“Life for music?” Eungi hazarded. 

“It’s not that embarrassing,” Hyunmin said confidently.

It wasn’t the most embarrassing thing Eungi had seen but he could understand why somebody would cringe thinking about it. He wouldn’t get a tattoo at all, probably, because he could see how awkward it looked. It looked a bit strange, isolated at the top of his chest.

Hwanwoong sighed like he knew so much better than Hyunmin. “Our Hyunmin has no taste just like that Chinese hyung.”

“Which Chinese hyung?”

Hwanwoong screamed loudly enough that Eungi had to wonder how much hearing aids costed. He was also very dramatic about falling off Eungi’s lap and dropping his phone. Just in case Hwanwoong didn’t gift them all with sufficient hearing damage, Hyunmin also had a very similar reaction but rather than ending up on the floor, he ended up in Donghan’s lap.

Despite the ringing in his ears, Eungi wished for the damage to have gone further – say far enough that he wouldn’t have been able to hear Jungjung asking whose bare chest they were all looking at.

“Ah, Jungjung-hyung,” Taedong greeted amicably over the back of the bench. “We were talking about the other Chinese hyung.”

“Yongguk-hyung,” Donghan clarified while petting Hyunmin’s head gently as though it was necessary. Eungi didn’t think that Jungjung’s uncomprehending nodding had anything to do with the identity of this other ‘Chinese hyung’.

“So you are all looking at naked pictures of him?” Eungi noted how Jungjung said ‘all’ but only looked at Eungi. That was hardly fair.

“We’re not looking at naked pictures,” Donghan denied loudly.

“What are you doing here?” Eungi asked quietly.

“I sent you a message and you didn’t reply. I was worried,” Jungjung explained as though it was all that simple. It wasn’t. Eungi had just been crying because of Jungjung. He highly doubted that Jungjung had any right to feel worried.

“So you followed us?”

Jungjung frowned. Then he nodded.

“I did.”

He looked very pleased with himself and that was something that Eungi couldn’t understand. He wondered when it was that Jungjung had tried to find them but that train of thought was a perilous one. He withdrew his phone from his pocket. Jungjung hadn’t disclosed the fact that he had sent almost a dozen messages.

“How did you never notice that many messages?” Taedong asked.

“Me too,” Hwanwoong said as he clambered up to Eungi’s lap to look at the messages. Eungi was not about to open a single one of them and he shoved his phone back into his pocket. Hwanwoong groaned pathetically and fluttered his eyelashes up at Eungi.

“Did you read my messages?” Jungjung asked. He had just seen Eungi do the opposite of read the messages so he must have been asking simply to make a point.

“No.”

“Oh, well some of them said that I wanted to speak with you. Can we talk?”

Eungi thought he had been upset enough for one day but Hyunmin, poking at Eungi’s leg and hissing ‘yes’ seemed to have other ideas. Taedong had only noticed at this point that Hyunmin was very comfortably settled in Donghan’s lap and took the opportunity to physically remove him from the vicinity. Hwanwoong cheered and Donghan sipped at the smoothie and pretended not to notice.  

Jungjung thought that was the perfect time to say whatever he wanted. Eungi wasn’t too cut up about the fact that he flinched when Jungjung rested his hand on Eungi’s shoulder and leaned in to his ear.

“Please. Can you listen to what I have to say?”

Eungi supposed it might be kinder to himself to get everything out of the way today and properly sort out his feelings later. He didn’t say anything as he followed Jungjung to the other side of the kiosk to the paddle boats.

“You aren’t trying to trap me on a boat with you, right? Because that would be very awkward and uncomfortable.”

Jungjung frowned. “No? But the others can’t see us over here. I thought it was better to talk this way.”

That made sense. Eungi nodded and widened his eyes expectantly. Jungjung took his time over organising his thoughts.

“Our relationship used to be better. It was easier,” Jungjung finally said. Eungi knew that much but he didn’t want to hear it. He could hardly dispute the fact so he kept quiet. “I want to be able to have a good relationship. You used to enjoy being around me.”

Eungi still did. Too much, in fact. That was the whole problem. This conversation was going to be pointless if Jungjung’s advice would amount to something like ‘get over it.’

“I am trying to do better,” Eungi muttered.

“Do better at what?” Jungjung asked. He didn’t give Eungi a chance to stumble over an insufficient reply before he said, “I’m not in love with you, Eungi. We still have some distance to cover. But I like you a lot. I can’t stop thinking about you. Hmm. I want to be in love with you.”

That was simultaneously the best and worst thing that Eungi had ever heard. He was going to cry again, that was for sure.

It didn’t particularly make any sense that Jungjung would be saying these things. Eungi had spent a long time looking at Jungjung and thinking about Jungjung and waiting for Jungjung. He had known all along that things had changed and it was more difficult to hold a conversation without wanting to diverge and say stupidly fanciful things.

The things he was hearing right now all sounded very fanciful. But they could be wrong. Eungi could be mishearing or Jungjung could have said something wrong.

“Are you happy or do you not like it?” Jungjung asked. He looked concerned about it. Eungi was happy about the words, happy that Jungjung was worried about him and his reactions, but whether he was allowed to be happy was another matter.

Eungi’s mouth was dry. “Do you want me to be happy?”

“I always want you to be happy, Eungi. I want everything to be good for you.”

It sounded good. Surely Jungjung couldn’t sound that genuine about a misunderstanding. And maybe Eungi should stop being a coward if things have come to this.

“Hyung, I am already in love with you,” Eungi said.

“Already?”

“Yes.”

“You love me?”

Yes.”

Jungjung pouted and shrugged his shoulders like a petulant child. His face didn’t look too grumpy for long as a smile was already bursting through his lips. He reached for Eungi’s shoulder and squeezed briefly. “Unfair. I have been trying not to burden you with these feelings. And you already love me? Really?”

“Is it a burden to be liked by me?” Eungi asked lightly. Jungjung stepped closer and wrapped himself around Eungi.

“No way! I only wanted to be a bit cool for you. I didn’t want you to feel forced to like me back,” Jungjung said as he pressed his face right into Eungi’s shoulder. “Truly?”

“Truly what?” Eungi asked quietly.

This was strange, but he was glad Jungjung had suggested they stand behind the kiosk to hire paddle boats. There were trees around them on the other side and they were mostly hidden from view. More than the fact that they were hugging, that Jungjung was intent to bury his face in the hollow of Eungi’s neck, it was a blessing that the undoubtedly idiotic expression on Eungi’s face wasn’t visible.

“Truly. Truly. Is this real?” Jungjung asked.

“I am wondering the same thing.”

Jungjung only loosened his hold slightly and lifted his head from Eungi’s shoulder. His face was too close but it was unlikely he could ever be close enough. There was a shine in his eyes and a smile on his face.

“Eungi.”

“Yes, Hyung?”

“I am allowed to love you, right?” Jungjung asked.

“Of course.”

Jungjung sighed, relieved, and dropped his head back onto Eungi’s shoulder. “Ah, Eungi, I have always been looking at you, you know. I am sorry for not –”

“Hong Eungi!” The shout came from nearby. Eungi could be forgiven for flinching so dramatically, he was certain of that.

“Hong Eungi!” Came another shout. What followed was a tentative, “Hyung.”

Eungi was happy that he had been able to have a talk with Jungjung that didn’t end with him wanting to be swallowed into the ground, but he was also annoyed that it had taken Hwanwoong and Hyunmin this long to start looking for him. He was a good friend and a caring hyung so of course he would have started to look for his friends in under a minute. But maybe the commotion with Taedong and Donghan had gone on much longer than expected after Eungi and Jungjung slipped away from the group.

But finally they were looking for him.

While Eungi was happy to be so loved by his friends, Jungjung did not look happy. The frown in his face grew with each call of Eungi’s name.

“The kids are so noisy.”

“Isn’t it right that they should be lively?” Eungi asked as he patted at Jungjung’s back.

“Ah, but Kenta-Hyung intended to look after them,” Jungjung said. He frowned for a moment before smiling secretively. “Shall we hide a bit longer?”

They were out of view of most people but a person only had to walk behind the kiosk to find Eungi and Jungjung. They wouldn’t stay hidden for very long if their friends looked in the right place. The hiding wasn’t particularly up to either of them. But Jungjung’s smile was so sure. Eungi found himself smiling back so hard that his cheeks hurt – or maybe the muscles in his face were already hurting from hearing nice things.

“They might worry if we are gone for too long,” Eungi said.

“Why would they worry? I wouldn’t do anything bad.”

Eungi knew that much. But he had already cried too much today. It hadn’t been long ago that his tears had been shed, and right now it seemed strange to be happy. He wanted so much and to have it in his arms was too good to be true. Eungi would also be worried if his position was switched with Hwanwoong or Hyunmin.

It seemed counterproductive to admit as much to Jungjung. Instead he said, “We all just worry a lot.”

“Hong Eungi!”

That shout was not a voice he expected. Kenta was standing next to the kiosk and grinning slyly.

“What is this? Hong Eungi and Jungjung? This all looks very suspicious!” Kenta leered.

“Hyung, you knew I was coming here?” Jungjung said brightly as he turned to face Kenta properly. He kept an arm tightly attached to Eungi’s back. It was strange. It was solid comfort.

Hwanwoong and Hyunmin also appeared from around the corner, covering their eyes and smiling.

“Kyaa~! Kyaa~!” Hwanwoong said in a high-pitched voice. “I hope you aren’t doing dirty things in broad daylight.”

“Dirty things?” Jungjung repeated. “How could we? We have only just started going out.”

“Oh!” Said Kenta.

“Going out?” Asked Hyunmin.

Eungi wanted to ask the same thing. Were they ‘going out’ now? They hadn’t quite reached that point in the conversation. They had established that they liked one another – no matter how disbelieving they each seemed to be about that point – but that was all.

Would Eungi be able to talk about having a significant other and know that he was talking about Jungjung? Would he be able to look forward to meeting his boyfriend for dates? Would he be able to have a pet-name to call Jungjung by, something special that was only for the two of them?

He looked up at Jungjung’s shy smile.

Maybe it was fine that neither of them had got around to officially asking because Eungi there was no way he would have said no to the question. Eungi was always assuming something when it came to Jungjung and he just wanted to assume it was what he hoped. Just this once.

“Jaechannie, would such a good hyung lie to you?” Hwanwoong asked loudly into his phone. “Make sure you tell everybody that the hyungs are finally going out with each other.”

It hadn’t even been half an hour since Eungi was feeling blessed to have a friend as good as Hwanwoong. Now, however, Eungi’s thoughts were changing.

“Yeo Hwanwoong, be quiet!” Eungi called.

“Yes, Hyung, I’m just on the phone at the moment,” Hwanwoong nodded absently. Lip service. Immediately he returned to the call. “Yoon Jaechan, you really did send that concern in to me earlier, didn’t you? Which hyungs do you think I would be talking about?”

 

Eungi held hands with lots of people. He did it very often. He enjoyed skinship with his friends, that was just a part of Eungi’s life. But he hadn’t imagined that his fingers interlinked with Jungjung’s would feel so perfect. He squeezed at the hand that was in his own and Jungjung knocked their shoulders together and smiled.  

“Is this good?”

“It’s good,” Eungi confirmed. Eating proved to be difficult with their hands locked together but Eungi wasn’t that hungry anyway. Jungjung had an untouched pile of fries laid out on a napkin on the table and Eungi wondered whether the lack of hunger was a shared phenomenon.

“Are you going to eat those?” Kiwon asked as he reached for a handful of Jungjung’s fries.

“You can have them,” Jungjung said. He only had the illusion of a say in the matter but Kiwon thanked him nonetheless and even had the gall to offer some to Namhyung.

Being surrounded by friends was nice. Eungi always liked to be around friends. Having lots of friends was just a good part of life. And he had Jungjung beside him. There were no amount of concerns that Hwanwoong could make up to change that. Though they probably wouldn’t hurt if any problems arose from that.

“Ah, I have just received another concern,” Hwanwoong announced loudly to the table.

“Give it a rest, Hyung,” Jaechan grumbled.

“But this one is a good one,” Hwanwoong said. “It reads, ‘I’m in denial about going out with my close friend who looks like a fox. Please help.’ Does anybody have any advice for Kim Donghan-hyung or Lee Insoo-hyung?”

Donghan scoffed and shook his head from where he had been quietly seething ever since Taedong had accepted their invitation to join everybody else for dinner. Woodam glanced at Donghan’s poor expression and whispered to Hyunmin to move his chair over so that they weren’t sitting so close to the danger zone.

Kenta was rolling his eyes once more at Hwanwoong’s fake concerns, clearly not bothered enough to get into a dispute about it while Sangbin laughed while elbowing him in the side. Insoo didn’t react quite so maturely.

“Yeo Hwanwoong, I hope you’re prepared for nobody to ever call you cute again,” Insoo threatened.

Hwanwoong only had time to pull and obnoxiously cute expression before Insoo lunged across the table at him.

**Author's Note:**

> i know, i know, the ending resolves itself too easily but it is what it is.


End file.
